Monday, August 3, 2015

Connor Forrest — Chinese factory replaces 90% of humans with robots, production soars


Here come are the robots.
Chinese factory replaces 90% of humans with robots, production soarsChangying Precision Technology Company in Dongguan city has set up an unmanned factory run almost entirely by robots. The factory has since seen fewer defects and a higher rate of production.…
The Changying Precision Technology Company factory in Dongguan has automated production lines that use robotic arms to produce parts for cell phones. The factory also has automated machining equipment, autonomous transport trucks, and other automated equipment in the warehouse.
There are still people working at the factory, though. Three workers check and monitor each production line and there are other employees who monitor a computer control system. Previously, there were 650 employees at the factory. With the new robots, there's now only 60. Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the company, told the People's Daily that the number of employees could drop to 20 in the future.
The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People's Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.

The increased production rate hasn't come at the cost of quality either. In fact, quality has improved. Before the robots, the product defect rate was 25%, now it is below 5%.
 China is following Japan's example of using technological innovation to address its demographic problem of an aging population resulting from the one child policy.

Tech Republic
Chinese factory replaces 90% of humans with robots, production soars
Connor Forrest
ht Alexrpt at Red Pill Times

9 comments:

John said...

"China is following Japan's example of using technological innovation to address its demographic problem of an aging population resulting from the one child policy."

That can't be the reason, surely? China has hundreds of millions of subsistence peasant farmers who need to be integrated into an industrialised advanced consumer economy. Perhaps China is already encountering the limits of industrialisation and needs to free up workers for a service based economy?

Tom Hickey said...

Of course, I don't think it is the only reason. But both China and Japan are preparing for the demographic shift they are expecting.

India on the other hand has the opposite issue demographically. It has to create jobs for more young people entering the workforce.

In all these cases it is an opportunity and also a challenge.

Peter Pan said...

Superior product, lower costs = customer satisfaction, higher profits

Anonymous said...

The piece explained why they did it: greater output at lower cost.

Tom Hickey said...

Of course, companies are going to do it based on the microeconomics. But from the macro POV China and Japan are facing a productivity issue owing to demographics. The governments know this and in both Japan and China the banks and government work closely to fund the kind of projects that fit into their longterm plan. Firms chose to invest based on micro, finance directs investment based on political economy, and in both Japan and China finance is a kind of corporate statism. It's not just about funding profitable projects is the expectation of future profit.

This is shown in the common Western view that China has engaged in a lot malinvestment building bridges to nowhere and cities in the boonies when it is actually part of the current five-year plan that fits into a larger scenario like the New Silk Road.

John said...

"This is shown in the common Western view that China has engaged in a lot malinvestment building bridges to nowhere and cities in the boonies when it is actually part of the current five-year plan that fits into a larger scenario like the New Silk Road."

That makes a lot of sense. So while all the chumps on TV and print are decrying China's alleged malinvestements as a bubble that will collapse, China is yet again playing a different game: Asian (possibly Eurasian) integration with China at the helm. Why is it so difficult for these chumps to imagine that China's economic model does not have to be the same as that found in Mises 101, and that its economic model, resources and ambitions allow it to do things in a different manner? Not that there aren't examples of this state-directed developmental model!

The give away is the word "malinvestment", which is straight out of the Austrian literature.

How much "malinvestment" can there be in a country with state-directed banks, a good deal of state-directed developmental projects, using a state currency, "debt" denominated in its own currency, a country whose developmental needs are as great as China's, and with the advantage that whatever it is now investing in will integrate much of Asia into a regional economic powerhouse with China right at the centre of it all? China is following the Japan's state-directed post-war path to prosperity.

Although you have to ask, the way the Chinese markets have been reacting in the last couple of weeks, there may be a hiccup or two along the way. The only serious thing that may hold China back is the environmental catastrophe it is unleashing. Everything else seems to be falling into place.

Peter Pan said...

If they are facing a demographic problem why are they building cities? Are they planning on increasing immigration?

Tom Hickey said...

Asian (possibly Eurasian) integration with China at the helm

This is the plan. Russia was resisting, wanting to join the West instead. The neocons ended that aspiration driving Russia toward China and making Chinese economic dominance of Eurasia a present possibility. German business gets this, too, and is on board, wanting to get in on the ground floor.

How much "malinvestment" can there be in a country with state-directed banks, a good deal of state-directed developmental projects, using a state currency, "debt" denominated in its own currency, a country whose developmental needs are as great as China's, and with the advantage that whatever it is now investing in will integrate much of Asia into a regional economic powerhouse with China right at the centre of it all? China is following the Japan's state-directed post-war path to prosperity.

Exactly, with a dollop of Singapore, in the sauce, too.

Although you have to ask, the way the Chinese markets have been reacting in the last couple of weeks, there may be a hiccup or two along the way.

Striking out into new territory is bound to involve some fits and starts.

The only serious thing that may hold China back is the environmental catastrophe it is unleashing.

The leadership is operating under time pressure and global events beyond its control.

If they are facing a demographic problem why are they building cities? Are they planning on increasing immigration?

The modern civilizational model is urban. They plan to industrialize agriculture and have to do something with the farmers. So what's happening is a type of socialistic enclosure that they have to to handle more gracefully than the capitalist enclosure, which was brutal. The Chinese intend not to repeat that horror story.

Peter Pan said...

If they have work for the farmers, then they would move to the city. If not, they should be allowed to stay, either as farmers or as supervisors.

The future civilizational model may be local and more decentralized. We don't know.